Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, if I did Remus would never have died and
would have married Luna's never-before mentioned older sister, Liz.
J

Note: I
have long despised prejudice of any kind, so when I read about the
werewolf bigotry in HP, I had to do something about it. The Society
for the Protection of Harmless Werewolves was actually an idea I came
up with that helped spawn this story. If you would like to join, PM
me; it won't really mean anything except your username will show up
on my profile as a member of SPHW. Now, isn't that great incentive?

The
Society for the Protection of Harmless Werewolves

"Moony,
what's wrong?"

Remus
Lupin looked up into the worried face of his best friend, Sirius
Black. "Nothing, Padfoot," he said, sighing and getting up
from the kitchen table to pour himself a glass of butterbeer.

"So
you're just deciding to mope around the house all day and act moody
for no reason whatsoever?" Sirius asked shrewdly.

"It's
nothing, Sirius,"
Remus repeated, putting the butterbeer flagon back in the fridge and
closing the door with unnecessary vigor without even having poured
himself a glass.

"Well,
I guess that I can just use Legilimency on you and that will prove
that it's nothing," Sirius said.

"You
never even learned how to do Legilimency, Padfoot."

"How
do you know? Maybe I learned."

"From
who? With your big head, I doubt that you'd take lessons from Snape."

"Oh,
so you've resorted to name-calling in your insecurity now, have you?"
Sirius asked, pretending to write on an imaginary piece of parchment
as a psychiatrist might.

"Shut
up, Sirius," Remus said, sitting down again and burying his face
in his hands. He heard Sirius sigh and sit down across from him.

Remus
sighed. "Fine. I just went for a job offer and was denied
because the manager found out about my lycanthropy," he said,
kicking sullenly at a table leg.

"That's
all?" Sirius asked incredulously. "What was it this time?
The dishwasher at the Leaky Cauldron or perhaps even the janitor at
Eeylops?"

A
blush suffused Remus's pale cheeks, but he almost immediately replied
to his friend's comment. "You don't understand. I need
to be doing something. Voldemort and his
followers are pretty quiet right now, they're waiting to strike, so I
can't just sit here and twiddle my thumbs!"

Sirius
understood his friend's implication, for he said, "Don't you
think I'd be doing something if I could, Moony? The great Albus
Dumbledore wants to keep me safe by locking me up in here and Snape's
baiting isn't making it any easier!"

"You're
right, Pads. I'm sorry," Remus apologized. "It's just. . .
."

"I
know," Sirius said. "It's just hard for you, isn't it?"

Remus
nodded. "Yeah."

"Well,
you've got to know that you're welcome to stay here. We're both
misfits, you know, me, the supposed convicted murderer and you, the
werewolf. Plus, you'd be much more
welcome than Snivellus," Sirius finished with a pretend shudder
and a grin as he saw a small smile playing around his best friend's
lips.

"I
didn't know you still called him that," Remus said
reminiscently.

"Well,
I do. And he still calls me 'Black,' with that awful inflection of
his."

Remus
rolled his eyes.

"And
we'll have to tell Harry all those stories about Snape and us, so
that he can use them on old Snivellus when he's taunting Harry about
James. Ah, the possibilities are endless," he said with a smile.

Remus
grinned, the thought of James's son always cheered both of them up.
"Yeah. Do you remember that time when James nearly ran him over
on that Comet Two-Sixty of his?"

"Of
course!" And the two men trailed off into reminiscent
story-telling of their time at Hogwarts, the uncomfortable silence
that had reigned between them nearly that whole day, breached.

However,
as the two men reconciled, a girl named Hermione Granger left the
stairwell leading to the kitchen and up to Harry and Ron's room, a
purposeful glint in her eye.

"Harry.
Harry, wake up." Harry Potter was shaken awake from a restful
sleep by his friend, Hermione that night.

"Hermione,
wha-?" he asked, fumbling for his glasses and putting them on as
Hermione switched on the light.

As
she did this, there was a moan from the adjacent bed and Ron's weary
mumble. "Mum, five more minutes," he groaned.

"It's
not your Mum, Ron," Harry said. "It's Hermione."

"What?"
Ron asked, sitting up in bed. "Hermione, do you have something
against a decent night's sleep? It's one in the morning for God's
sake!"

"Well,
maybe if you hadn't stayed up all night reading that Quidditch book,"
Hermione replied saucily.

"Hey,
the Cannons are awesome!" Harry snorted and Ron glared at him.
"Shut up, Harry," he said, half-teasing and half-serious.

"Make
me," Harry teased. Ron threw a pillow at him which Harry
returned and Hermione rolled her eyes at her two friend's behavior.

"Do
you guys want to hear what I have to say or not?" she asked,
somewhat annoyed.

Harry
and Ron exchanged glances and then said simultaneously, "Not
really." Hermione gave them a dirty look that would have made
Draco Malfoy proud, then said, "But this is really
important."

"Does
'this,' have to do with spew?" Ron asked.

"It's
not spew, Ron,"
Hermione sighed. "It's the. . . ."

"Society
for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare," Harry and Ron finished in
monotone voices.

"We
know, Hermione, so what's your point?" Harry asked.

"My
point is that this isn't about
SPEW," Hermione said.

"Well,
if that's all, then I'm going back to bed," Ron said
sarcastically, turning over and pulling the covers over him. Harry
echoed him and Hermione groaned.

"But
this is much more
important," she said.

"What?
Homework?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Finding
out another one of Rita Skeeter's horribly unscrupulous plans?"
Ron guessed and using a vocabulary to make him sound much like
Hermione.

"No,"
Hermione said, exasperated. "This is about Remus, so you two
might want to listen up."

Harry's
attention was immediately grabbed as Remus was a friend of his. Was
he in trouble? "What is it?" Harry asked worriedly. "I
saw him today, he looked alright." Ron, too, looked worried.

"He's
not hurt," Hermione reassured them. "It's just that when I
was going to the bathroom tonight, I heard them talking in the
kitchen and, well . . . they sounded worried, so I thought I might be
able to help, and . . . um. . . ." She trailed off, blushing as
Harry and Ron gazed at her raptly.

Ron
had just opened his mouth to make a comment when there was a sharp
crack, a moan of
annoyance from Ron, and one of the Weasley twin's voices. "You
were eavesdropping,
Hermione?"

"I'm
astounded," said the other twin.

"You're
getting as bad as us. . . ."

"Which
means there's hope for you yet."

"So
you won't get to be as big a prat as Percy. . . ."

"Or
this redhead here," one twin said, socking Ron on the shoulder,
who had been wincing since Fred and George had Apparated on his knees
- yet again.

"We'll
lend you an Extendable Ear one time if you'd like, we were just using
one."

"And
at a perfectly reasonable price."

"How
much?" Ron asked excitedly.

"For
you, little bro, ten Galleons, we were offering it at a discount to
this new mischief-maker here."

Ron
gave a snort of disgust as Hermione blushed deeper. "I just
thought I could help and I can,"
she said defensively.

"Oh,
so now you're the Little-Engine-Who-Could," Fred or George
teased.

Hermione
rolled her eyes. "No, I'm the Little-Witch-Who-Could and the
witch who's going to hex you if you idiots don't start listening!"

"Keep
it down," said a voice in the doorway and all the kids turned to
see Ginny standing there. "Do you want to wake Mum up or what?
If she sees that we're up at this time of night, she'll kill us."

"Thanks,
Gin," Ron said affectionately to his little sister.

"So,
what's happening?" she asked.

Before
any of the guys could interrupt, Hermione had spoken. "SPHW is
what's happening," she said.

"I
knew it!" Ron
said dramatically and immediately quieted at a quelling look from his
sister, so that she looked very much like Mrs. Weasley. "I knew
it had something to do with spew," he
said in a softer tone.

"It's
not about SPEW, Ron,"
Hermione said. "It's SPHW,
not SPEW."

"So,
it spi-hew," Ron said.

"That's
pathetic even for you," Harry teased, earning a grin from both
Fred and George.

"But
this isn't about
elves," Hermione insisted. "It's about something totally
different. You see, SPHW stands for the Society for the Protection of
Harmless Werewolves." She looked around at all her friends
expectantly and they all gave her quizzical glances.

Ron
finally broke the silence with one of his well-chosen remarks.
"You're crazy, 'Mione," he said firmly. The rest of the
kids nodded, even Ginny, who had somewhat supported Hermione's SPEW
campaign.

"It
isn't crazy,"
Hermione insisted. "I heard Sirius and Remus talking and Remus
was sad because he'd been turned down for a job (although it was
poor-paying, mind you), because the manager had found out about his
lycanthropy and isn't as open as Dumbledore about such things. And we
all know he's a perfectly willing and hard-working employee."

"I
still say you're nuts," Ron commented. "I mean, the elf
thing I can at least kind of understand, because they won't stand up
for themselves and they're creatures, but werewolves are humans
and can stand up for themselves if they need
to."

"But
they won't!" Hermione said, very annoyed that no one would agree
with her. "That's the same problem that there was with the
elves, they refuse to
stand up for themselves, the elves like being in bondage, but I doubt
that werewolves like Remus like all this bigotry against them, so we
have to help him and others get past their passivity to work for
equal rights!"

"Did
you even ask Remus or Sirius about this?" Harry asked.

"Not
yet, but we're going to need more of us to convince them that this
needs to be done, so that's why I'm asking you guys to join,"
Hermione said pleadingly.

"How
about . . . no?" one of the twins said, Disapparating with a
crack.

"Definitely
not," the other twin added, following his brother's example.

"Sorry,
Hermione, but it just wouldn't feel right doing something like that,"
Ginny said apologetically. "I understood with the elf thing,
because they're creatures under us and we were trying to get them to
the same level as us, but werewolves are already human, so it would
feel as if they were inferior to us if I did it," she said, with
a surprising amount of wisdom for a fourteen-year-old. With that, she
left the room, moving as quietly as a cat. Crookshanks, who had been
listening to the discussion slunk out after her.

"What
about you two?" Hermione asked, nearly begging her two best
friends.

Harry
and Ron looked at each other and, as they had so many times before
said, "No," simultaneously before Harry switched off the
light and they each laid back down, ready to go to sleep.

However,
Hermione wasn't about to take no for an answer from those two, so she
switched the light back on stubbornly and both of the boys groaned,
trying to avoid the light so that they could get to sleep. "Why
don't you want to join?" she asked.

"Plus,
Remus is the only werewolf we know," Ron added and it was
Harry's turn to nod.

Hermione
frowned, Ron had a point, but then struck upon a new point. "I
can't believe that you won't do this, Harry," she hissed. "I
mean, Remus took care of you when you were in diapers and now he's
having trouble and you won't even help him?"

"Remus
doesn't need help,
Hermione, and he wouldn't accept it if we offered it," Harry
replied. "Plus, he doesn't need to be making money, he can stay
here since he's part of the Order and everything."

"But
Remus said he wanted to do more,"
Hermione insisted. "He said that he couldn't sit here and
twiddle his thumbs, that he feels useless, then. It's like with
Sirius being locked up in here, isn't it?" she asked Harry.

"Then
get more members for the Order," Ron suggested. "No one
will care about his lycanthropy if he's just doing that."

"You're
right!" Hermione said excitedly and Harry and Ron looked at each
other nervously. When Hermione got excited like this, it usually
meant something bad for them. "You're right, Ron!" Hermione
repeated. "Why, Remus could easily ask more werewolves to join
the Order and then we could help all of them, too!" She was
looking at him with a glint in her eyes that usually only SPEW or
writing an essay two rolls of parchment long inspired in her.

Harry
decided to try a new tactic now as Ron groaned at what his dissuading
statement had caused Hermione to think. "Hermione, you're
perfectly welcome to do this on your own," he said.

"But
I can't!"
Hermione said fervently. "I told you, I need more people on our
side to convince Remus and Sirius that this needs to be done!"
Ron groaned while Harry rolled his eyes and they were about to reply
when the door was opened to reveal the stern-looking faces of Remus
Lupin and Sirius Black.

"What
exactly are you three doing up at one in the morning?" Sirius
asked.

"Because
Hermione's gone crazy!" Ron moaned, burying his head in the
pillow.

"It's
true, she seems to have something against a decent night's sleep,"
Harry added.

"Does
this have anything to do with why you have to 'convince Remus and
Sirius'?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow and turning his amber
eyes from the two boys to Hermione.

"Yes,"
Hermione said defensively. The two bachelors glanced at each other,
they knew Hermione well enough by now to know that she wasn't usually
out-right like this to adults she respected. It was obviously
something important (or at least in Hermione's eyes, it was).

"What
is it?" the werewolf asked patiently.

"It's
about you, Remus," Hermione said. "You see, I heard you two
talking about how Remus was denied another job because of his
lycanthropy and I thought it would be nice if someone did
something about it instead of just
complaining, so I formed SPHW, but Harry and Ron here are refusing to
join and I need someone to
convince you that it needs to be done."

"SPHW?"
Sirius asked blankly.

"The
Society for the Protection of Harmless Werewolves," his godson
answered, giving a slight grin as if the whole situation were comical
instead of sleep-depriving.

Remus
had remained motionless throughout these proceedings, but now he
allowed himself a slight grin and Harry was surprised at how much
younger he looked when a smile lit up his serious face. Then, he let
out a small chuckle, shaking his head and murmuring to himself
(sounding quite a bit like Kreacher) and chuckled again, louder this
time. The others in the room joined in, all except Hermione, who
looked wounded as the males in the room laughed at her idea.

"No,"
Remus said firmly, putting up a hand. "Werewolves may be
prejudiced against, but they can stand up for themselves if they need
to, with their strength and especially on the full moon," he
said with a slight grin as Sirius smiled behind him. "And have
you forgotten the werewolves that are in Voldemort's service? Why, if
something like this got off the ground, they'd take advantage of it
and would be able to get inside the Ministry, get top positions and
all that. That would give Voldemort even more spies inside the
Ministry, outnumbering our Order members, and I know you wouldn't
want that. Right now, the Order is the most important thing to me,
and, although I'd like another job, keeping Voldemort at bay is my
main priority right now, not my own personal appearance in society."
He ended his speech of sorts with a squeeze on Hermione's hand.
"Thank you for the offer, but I can't take you up on it,"
he concluded.

"You
three get to bed, now," Sirius ordered, trying to act stern and
parental, but failing abysmally. "You're lucky we didn't call
Molly. You three were making enough noise to wake the dead, it's a
wonder that she and Arthur slept through it," he added, trying
to recover as all three of the teenagers gave each other glances,
trying to hold back laughs at Sirius's parental air.

"Well,
that's because we fed her a Sleeping Draught," one of the twin's
voices added from the doorway.

"We
figured you three would need it," the other added.

Sirius
and Remus rolled their eyes while the trio grinned. "Thanks,"
Hermione said.

"It's
one of the few times we've shown generosity, Hermione."

"So
you might want to record this. . . ."

"And
play it over and over whenever we do another prank on you."

"So
that you don't hex us with one of your numerous spells."

"You
smart little witch, you."

Hermione
blushed as Sirius said, "Enough stalling, get to bed."

"Yes,
Dad," Harry teased, switching off the light for himself and Ron
as they lay down and Hermione was shepherded out of the room by the
two Marauders.

Harry
and Ron were asleep within instants, but Hermione lay awake in her
bed, thinking. SPEW could get on its way if she could get a sponsored
cleaning of the Gryffindor common room and maybe into the kitchens a
few more times (you tickle the pear, right?), once they got to
Hogwarts. But there had to be more, there were so many
underprivileged creatures in this world that wizards liked to rule
over, whether they were human, part-human, or not human at all.
Werewolves wouldn't work, she decided, but, then again, goblins might
need some help and Ron had even hinted about it. Oh, yes, she thought
gleefully as she drifted off. SPUG, here I come!

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